1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to recovering water from an underground source, and in particular to an improved wind driven air pump which forces water from the underground source to the surface.
More particularly, this invention is directed to an improved pump for recovering water from an underground source for the purposes of watering livestock in which the pump is wind driven, operates virtually maintenance-free and is extremely sensitive to slight changes in wind direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of wind driven pumps was, of course, very common on farms during the early and middle part of this century for retrieving water from the wells for personal consumption as well as for watering the livestock. The wind rotatable shaft on typical windmills was mechanically linked to a reciprocating piston or other similar mechanical pumping device, forming a suction which lifted the water from the well. While such wind driven pumps have been largely replaced by electric or gas driven devices, a recent resurgence in the use of wind driven pumps is beginning due to the rising costs of operating the electric and gas variety of pumps.
Devices which utilize wind driven propellers to produce compressed air are known. In such devices, the compressed air has been used to generate electricity, pump water, for refrigeration, and the like. Examples of such devices which have been patented include U.S. Pat. No. 2,112,633, issued Mar. 29, 1938, to Moon, which discloses a wind operated electrical generating unit in which the compressed air produced drives an air operated motor operatively secured to an electrical generating unit; U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,131, issued Jan. 10, 1978, to Jacobs et al, which discloses a wind driven propeller for driving an output shaft for generating electricity, pumping water, or for operating a compressor for refrigeration or other uses; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,926, issued Nov. 20, 1979, to Hamrick et al, in which a wind driven water pump is disclosed containing a fluid accumulator operated on compressed air. The present invention is an improvement on such devices which utilize wind energy to produce compressed air and in particular to those devices which use the compressed air to pump water from an underground source. The present invention provides a device which operates virtually maintenance-free and free of the problems associated with prior art devices, such as the freezing of condensation in the airlines, lack of sensitivity to changes in wind direction and the complexity of the equipment which is costly to produce and install.